Monday, October 02, 2006

Crane Failure at 110 3rd Ave.

Above:The crushed cab. Below: The tower section that fell from the crane , hit the street and bounced onto the cab crushing the right side of the cab. Above: Emergency Services personnel attempting to secure the upper portion of the crane . Above : As always the news is there for the story . Above : Crane workers adding more temporary rigging to stabilize the crane for disassembly. Above: The problem : Approximately 40000 lb.s of counterweights that have jumped out of the seriously damaged restraining pocket that holds them in place during normal crane operation . Above:The counterweights being picked from the damaged pocket that holds them during normal crane operation . Above : Four of the five 8000 lb. counterweights being placed on the street. Above: The begining of the disassembling of crane truss boom .

This is a picture summary of the crane failure at 110 3rd Avenue which occurred at around 4 PM on Friday afternoon 30 Sept. 2006. There will perhaps be as many as 4 more posts covering this event with the last post being a detailed analysis of the event with close-up detailed pictures of the structure of the crane .

Late Friday afternoon a tower section fell from a Favelle Favco tower crane at 110 3rd Ave. , hit the street , bounced and dropped on a cab in the street crushing one side of the cab injuring 2 people . Three workers were injured at the top of the crane as a significant unexpected and seriously damaging abrupt movement and a jolting halt tossed them about the interior of the crane tower and operators cab . The abrupt halting of the movement also apparently broke loose the tower section which had just been removed from the tower assembly and was being prepared to be lowered to the street . The abrupt movement of the upper crane assembly also very nearly tossed 40000 lb.s of counterweights to the street which would possibly have resulted in the toppling of the large upper part of the crane to the street . According to a vague report from Department of Buildings engineers today , the crane suffered a hydraulic system failure .

As more information is made available and as I can piece together information recieved from individuals who were at the top of the crane and saw for themselves the damage caused to the crane by this peculiar event , I will attempt to present a more detailed analysis of the failures that caused this near disaster in a later post .

It should be noted that 110/3rd weas the site of the Variety Photplays Theater, a unique vaudeville house featured in such films as "Taxi Driver" and "Downtown 81" that starred the REAL Basquiat. It broke my heart to watch helplessly as the Toll Brothers real estate concern demolished the theater and the SRO building next door for the creation of yet another ugly architectural monstrosity that is out of scale with surrounding structures.

It should be noted that 110/3rd was the site of the Variety Photoplays Theater, a unique vaudeville house featured in such films as "Taxi Driver" and "Downtown 81" that starred the REAL Basquiat.

It broke my heart to watch helplessly as the Toll Brothers real estate concern demolished the theater and the SRO building next door for the creation of yet another ugly architectural monstrosity that is out of scale with surrounding structures.

The information on 'tower crane incident' is very interesting and detailed, with great photos!!

I am a construction safety manager working in Hong Kong, may I ask - (1) The maker and model of this tower crane? (2) Permission to use your tower crane photos in my future safety training sessions given to construction workers?